Senior Expo Offers Health Screenings, Exercise, And More

An exercise program took place outside the senior center, while the inside was packed with 40 vendors. (Photo by Bob Vosseller)

  JACKSON – More than 400 people flocked to the township’s senior center to check out resources, services and to enjoy lunch during the recently held Senior Expo.

  “We had 49 separate vendors and presenters and over 100 representatives from the organizations here. We had a great turnout,” Jackson Senior Center Director Kate Slisky said. The center is located off Don Conner Boulevard.

  She added, “we are seeing a lot of familiar faces with many of our regulars coming out today. Many are starting off outside the building with our senior exercise program. We have 40 people out there exercising before they come.”

Forty vendors came out for the well-attended Jackson Senior Expo held at the Township Senior Center recently. (Photo by Bob Vosseller)

  “We normally have exercise four days a week here and we offer seven classes. We started to have exercise classes during Covid and people are enjoying it and today they are coming inside afterward for the expo,” Slisky said.

  “We have granola, coffee cake, bread, muffins, yogurt, fresh fruit plus juice, coffee that was provided through one of vendors,” she added.

  The food area was conveniently set up in a back area of the center that is always used for costume changes during the center’s big holiday event, Toy Land, each December.

  Slisky said, “we haven’t held a senior expo since I’ve been here and I came to the building in 2017. We had planned one for March 2020 to be held just days before we shut down for Covid and so this is our first attempt at it and it was quite a scramble. A lot of our vendors have switched and changed over these last three years and a few of the facilities have combined or have bought each other out so we had to start from scratch.”

Health screenings were held during the recently held Senior Expo held at the Jackson Senior Center on Don Conner Boulevard. (Photo by Bob Vosseller)

  “CenterState is here, Monmouth Medical is here, Care One, the County Clerk’s Office, the Ocean County Health Department, the township fire department is here, police and a law firm. We have a little bit of everything here,” Slisky added.

  “Most of these vendors do come to the center regularly for bingo, luncheons and things like that. The hospitals and rehabilitation centers come and they provide us food for our seniors,” she added.

  The expo also featured blood pressure, hearing and glucose screening.